Simone Netherlands tells ABC15 she keeps a close eye on the herds in the Tonto National Forest as the President of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group.
"We had such a beautiful spring with so much growth that it's now a very dangerous fire season," said Netherlands.
On Monday, she went onto the overpass of Bush Highway and State Route 87 and got quite a view of the 87 Fire.
"It was just scary because you know this fire started not even 100 yards from where the Salt River wild horses were grazing at that time," she said.
Fire crews were able to get the 87 Fire under control, but it's one of many that have broken out over the past couple of months.
Arizona State Climatologist Erinanne Saffell claimed the wet weather and precipitation that Arizona had over the winter months, which created a lush spring, is the root of the problem with an active wildfire season.
"One of the things that we pay attention to when we're looking at wildfire activity is how wet it actually was over the winter. The longer it's wet, that means there's fewer opportunities for prescribed burns."
She stressed that a portion of the wildfires we saw last season were human-caused.
"We had almost 25% of our wildfires last year started by parking on the road," she stated. "We need to be careful where we pull over, where we pull our car over. We don't want to be parking on a grassy area on the side of the road if we have to pull over for an accident."
With more hot and dry weather on the way for June, Saffell is concerned about a rise in wildfires around the state.
